One half of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for their efforts to build up and dis-seminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. In particular, the 4th United Nations Climate Report on global climate change that appeared in three parts in January, February and May 2007 revealed new facts and has been a large contributor to raising the awareness of climate change.
ETH Zurich President, Ralph Eichler said “The Nobel Peace Prize is a distin-guished award and underscores the significance of climate research. I am par-ticularly pleased for the researchers from ETH Zurich and other Swiss universi-ties who played such a part in this success.”
‘Ecosystems’ chapter lead
Andreas Fischlin of ETH Zurich’s Institute for Integrative Biology, was the “Co-ordinating Lead Author” of the second book of the 4th United Nations Climate Report. He bore principal responsibility for the fourth chapter that concerns eco-systems. The chapter brings to the fore rising global temperatures of 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius and the extinction of 20 to 30 percent of all species – conclu-sions supported by the results of over 3100 scientific studies from various disci-plines. “This Nobel Prize is a big surprise and a great source of happiness. The problems facing the climate can only be explored on a global basis, and the IPCC offers a unique opportunity to do so.” Responding to the question of why the IPCC, an organistion for climate change, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Fischlin said, “The destructive climate change makes the world insecure. That’s why research into climate problems can also add to world peace.”
ETH Zurich contribution
In addition to “Coordinating Lead Author”, the party responsible for integrating all of the scientific knowledge, the report also lists “Lead Authors”, “Contributing Authors”, and “Review Editors”. Two ETH Zurich researchers, cited as “Lead Authors” worked alongside Dr. Fischlin, as did a further seven ETH Zurich re-searchers who are credited as “Contributing Editors” to the first two books of the new United Nations Climate Report. ETH Zurich researchers have, in total, de-livered 16 contributions to nine different chapters in the climate report.